DARREN VIGIL GRAY
Opening Reception: July 10th, 5 - 7pm
Open from July 10th - August 6,2021

KEYES GALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Jicarilla Apache artist and musician Darren Vigil Gray (b. 1959). Since the 1980s, Gray has been known for dynamic works that probe personal and tribal mythologies, portraiture, the broad landscape of northern New Mexico, and abstraction. Renown critic and curator Lucy Lippard said of his work, “Gray has found his true place in the act of painting, in brushstrokes informed by dreams and visions that transcend the personal and the local.” Indeed, Gray’s paintings circumvent a strict tribal ethos while accessing the deep mythological current that runs through his psyche. In this, the artist’s first exhibition on Long Island’s east end, works on exhibit include paintings on canvas and paper that offer a glimpse into his unique aesthetic.
Gray’s personal mythology is one that has evolved through fidelity to his own identity. His visual aesthetic draws mightily on intuition and “blood memory,” a term coined by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Gray’s father-in-law, N. Scott Momaday. For Gray, “blood memory” is more than a touchstone – it is a wormhole through which his vivid dreams and visions have allowed access to a distinct mythic realm. Momaday has referred to it as the ability to “remember things beyond our corporeal existence.” In the studio, Gray approaches the canvas without preconception, working spontaneously to locate content, imagery, and an active color dialogue within the process. 
This sense of immediacy is critical to his practice, and he proceeds on the canvas as if divining imagery from a separate reality or another time and place. Like a conduit between parallel worlds, his improvisations often conjure a symbolism that is both intrinsic and mystical. “It’s an energy field,” said Gray, speaking of his paintings, “that’s what comes back to you.” 

“The Beauty of Mystery Light”, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches